The invention relates to an electric connector, more particularly to an electric connector which can be easily positioned and soldered to a cable and which are reliable for production.
FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate an electric connector 3 to be used with a cable 4, and to mate with a complementary electric connector (not shown here). The electric connector includes an insulative housing 31, a plurality of conductive terminals 32 and a protective sleeve 33. The insulative housing 31 has a front end having a insertion side 3101 for connection with a complementary electric connector, and a rear end having a connecting side 3102. The insulative housing 31 is further formed with a plurality of terminal receiving tunnels 311 connected to the insertion side 3101 and the connecting side 3102. The terminal receiving tunnels 311 respectively have openings 3110 on the connecting side 3102. Each conductive terminal 32 has an insertion end 321, a connecting end 322 and a positioning section 323 connected to the insertion end 321 and the connecting end 322. Two opposite sides of the positioning section 323 are formed with barbs. Referring to FIG. 2, a conductive terminal 32 is placed in a corresponding terminal receiving tunnel 311 though an opening 3110 on the connecting side 3102. Via interferential engagement of the positioning section 323 with the inner wall of the corresponding terminal receiving tunnel, the insertion end 321 of the conductive terminal 32 is positioned in the terminal receiving tunnel 311 near the insertion side 3101 so as to electrically contact a corresponding terminal of a complementary electric conductor. At the same time the connective end 322 of the terminal extends outside the connecting side 3102 so as to be soldered to the cable 4. Lastly, as shown in FIG. 3, a protective sleeve is injection molded via an overmolding method so as to entirely envelop the connecting side 3102 of the insulative housing 31 and the soldering joints of the connecting ends 322 of all of the conductive terminals and the cable 4. Only the insertion side 3101 of the insulative housing 31 is exposed.
However, the following drawbacks are encountered in manufacturing the aforesaid electric connector:
1) It is difficult to solder the conductive terminals 32 to the cable 4. As shown in FIG. 2, after each conductive terminal 32 is positioned in each corresponding terminal receiving tunnel 311, each connecting end 322 thereof projects outside the connecting side 3102 in a suspended manner. Therefore the operation to solder the connecting ends 322 and the cable 4 is performed in a situation in which the connecting ends 322 and the cable 4 are not supported. If any one thereof is displaced, the quality of the soldering connection will be adversely affected, and difficulty will increase in the soldering operation.
2) It is difficult to position conductive terminals during manufacturing a protective sleeve 33. When an overmolding process is used to manufacture a protective sleeve 33, a flowable plastic material must be first injected into the mold so as to form the protective sleeve 33. However, high pressure generated upon injection of the molding material will keep the material to flow continuously. And since the solder connection between the connecting ends 322 and the cable 4 is in an unsupported state, upon being subjected to impact due to the high-pressure injected material, the connecting ends 322 of conductive terminals 32 will displace and contact adjacent connecting ends 322. In severe occasions, the terminals can even break, resulting in inferior products. To prevent the foregoing drawback, during the manufacturing of the protective sleeve 33, an adhesive tape or silicone adhesive filler is used to position the soldering junction between the connecting ends 322 and the cable 4 before the plastic material is injected into the mold. However, this extra positioning procedure will increase manufacturing cost and decrease the efficiency of production.
3) The plastic material injected during manufacturing of the protective sleeves 33 tends to seep into the terminal receiving tunnel 311. Due to the fact that there are openings 3110 of the terminal receiving tunnels 311 formed in the connecting side 3102 of the insulative housing 31, the high pressure plastic material for forming the protective sleeves 33 will overflow and seep into the terminal receiving tunnel 311. If the quantity of the overflowing material is too much, then the insertion ends 321 of the conductive terminals 321 will be covered by the plastic material or displaced from the original position, which in either case would produce unstable mating connection between the electric connector and an associated complimentary electric connector, and can even impair the electrically connecting effect.
4) The protective sleeves tend to deform after contraction due to cooling. As described in the foregoing, each connecting end 322 of the conductive terminal 32 is unsupportedly hung outside the connecting side 3102. Therefore, after the plastic material is injected into the mold and cooled down to form the protective sleeve 33, the lowering of temperature tends to contract the plastic material around the soldering junction between the connecting ends 322 and the cable 4, thus forming depression thereabout. Though this phenomenon does not alter the performance of the connector 3, it could affect the appearance thereof, rendering the product unacceptable. This increases the manufacturing cost.
Therefore, the main object of the present invention is to provide an electric connector that is easy to be positioned when being soldered to a cable and that can prevent the positional change or damage caused by the material injected during the manufacturing of the protective sleeves.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electric connector that can prevent the plastic material injected during manufacturing the protective sleeves from seeping into the electric connector.
Accordingly, an electric connector of this invention comprises
an insulative housing having an insertion side for insertion into a complementary electric connector, a connecting side and a plurality of terminal receiving tunnels connected to the insertion side and the connecting side;
a plurality of conductive terminals, each of the conductive terminal having a insertion end and a connecting end, each of the conductive terminal being placed in a corresponding one of the terminal receiving tunnels, the connecting end extends outside the connecting side;
a base having a plurality of grooves, the base further including one side which is adjacent to the connecting side of the housing and which has a stop block, the base having holes extending through the stop block at locations corresponding to the grooves, wherein, after the base is connected to the housing, the holes permit the connecting ends to pass therethrough and to be received in the grooves, and the stop block substantially covers the openings of the tunnels in the connecting side of the insulative housing.
The electrical connector may also include a protective sleeve covering the insulative housing, but exposing the insertion side of the insulative housing.
The electrical connector may also include an interference portion on said housing. The interference portion may assist in retaining the protective sleeve to the insulative housing.
The electrical connector may also include other features as more fully described in the specification.